Just Label It News Roundup 12-7

Bayer pursued Monsanto despite weedkiller suits and executive’s concern. The takeover bid lacked the support of the German company’s CEO at the time—and now Bayer shares are in a rut. The German Federal Minister for the Environment is calling for pesticide-free compensation areas and a binding date for the phase-out of glyphosate. In an Oregon county a pesticide ban model for the fight against farm chemicals. The grassroots effort last year could serve as an example for how other communities can beat large corporate interests. Some scientists have proposed genetically modified mosquitoes as a solution to controlling malaria, a scourge that has been around for centuries and is spread by mosquitoes. The European Parliament released the results Wednesday of a different long-term exposure ‘pesticides in hair’ testing project, initiated by The Detox Project and Kudzu Science. Dicamba continues to destroy crops and nearby plants — this time the weedkiller has been found guilty of damaging prized cypress trees that line Reelfoot Lake, in northwestern Tennessee.

The German Federal Minister for the Environment is calling for pesticide-free compensation areas and a binding date for the phase-out of glyphosate. However, this has annoyed the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture.

The benefits of crop rotations are to optimize the health and fertility of the land; maximize productivity; reduce pests, diseases and weeds; meet Organic Certification requirements and make the planning work easier on the brain. On a more invisible level, crop rotations help maintain the soil food web — a balance of the tiny soil micro-organisms which keep the soil organic matter healthy and able to fend off pathogens.